


reflecting

by paloverde



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-25 22:59:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20732120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paloverde/pseuds/paloverde
Summary: major spoilers for 956 in this one, watch out. real short thing about drake letting himself think for a second (got some themes of mental illness and child abuse in this, but no vivid descs. really just vague references)





	reflecting

Drake hated to think too deeply for too long. It was all too easy for him to overwhelm himself. Get a little too deep in thought, and he would start to spiral. Really, it was best not to think about himself. Just the task at hand.   
With everything that had happened in the past few years, it was hard not to do a little reflecting, though. Especially with the disaster brought about by the Strawhats arriving in Wano. It just got Drake thinking a little too hard.  
The whole reason Drake had stayed true to his old dream of being a Marine was because Barrels... wasn't so bad before he was a pirate. Sure, there were some vague memories of being yelled at and guilt tripped, but it wasn't horrible. There was just some odd kind of nostalgia associated with the Navy. He couldn't quite put words to it.   
It still felt strange to have become what Barrels was, and stranger still to become a pirate (if you could call it that). It was hard to disconnect Marines from Barrels, and harder to do the same for pirates. Made him feel weird to be both, like he was observing his own life from afar, watching himself spiral further. Too similar to what Barrels was. Like his actions and choices had made Drake an outsider in his own head.  
It was an awful feeling, really. There weren't a lot of people who knew exactly who he was, but the fact that people knew was distressing enough on his own. Too much of it just brought back bad memories, and at this point, it was putting a little too much pressure on Drake's mind.   
Between Kaido and Akainu, all of this was just too much to think about without getting exhausted. It was draining to be like this, it really was. He had to keep being, though. At this point, there was really no ducking out of the Marines or Kaido's crew.   
Drake sighed as he put the transponder snail Coby had called him through aside, careful not to wake it up. This really wasn't the time to be thinking about things like that. There were things to do.

**Author's Note:**

> drake's a really interesting character to me. his backstory and role in the story contradict each other a lot (barrels was a marine and later a pirate....and drake ended up following almost the same path) and its something i wanted to look into a little


End file.
